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Woman jailed for fraud amounting to about half a million dollars

Holly Jean Cardinal was meted with a three-year prison term following her guilty plea of having stolen $260,000 from a veterinary clinic wherein she was working as an administrator.

However, the Guardian Veterinary Centre was not the only employer that the 54-year-old Cardinal stole from because while she was working there, she was also undergoing trial for having embezzled $296,000 from her previous employer, the Allen Services and Contracting Ltd, where she had been working as a bookkeeper for a long time.

The judge found it aggravating that Cardinal continued to commit fraud with her new employer while she was undergoing trial for the same crime she committed from her previous employer.

In fact, she had pleaded guilty to those charges on the day she was asked by the vet clinic to leave under the suspicion that she was stealing from them.

The vet office, however, could not nail her for embezzlement for lack of evidence.

Cardinal confessed to stealing from the vet clinic while she was serving her sentence for her first fraud conviction.

Walter Raponi, a criminal lawyer in Edmonton, said that Cardinal resorted to stealing from her employers after she turned to gambling following a relationship that became abusive.

Calgary immigration lawyer said it is not over for his client yet

Posted Jun 30, 2015 on www.cbc.ca

Legal options have not run out for Imam Abdi Hersy despite losing his refugee protection status, according to Raj Sharma, the immigration lawyer from Calgary.

Sharma said that Hersy will be appealing the decision handed down by the Immigration and Refugee Board at the Federal Court.

The board's decision is in relation to the sexual charges that Hersy is facing in Minnesota, USA, where he used to work as a respiratory therapist in 2006.

At that time, Hersy came to Canada and successfully got himself protection as a refugee of Somalia.

The Canadian Border Services Agency, however, accused Hersy of mispresentation and worked on stripping him of his refugee status in 2013.

The agency succeeded but Hersy appealed his case to the Federal Court which sided with him.

Sharma said Hersy hopes for a repeat of that compassion that the Federal Court had shown him then.

Hersy had maintained his innocence against the sexual allegations and that issues with his immigration had kept him from proving he is not guilty.

Man refutes murder allegations

Posted Jun 29, 2015 on www.cbc.ca

Kevin Rubletz is denying that he had a hand in the death of his former girlfriend, Jessica Newman, whose body was found in May.

Newman was first reported missing in March before her body was found in a ditch.

Rubletz and Newman shared a child and had been reportedly locked in a custody battle.

Calgary criminal lawyer Brendan Miller is representing Rubletz, who is facing a second-degree murder in relation to Newman's death.

Miller said that he is still waiting for the disclosure from the Crown and that there is a possibility that his client will be seeking bail.

Frying pan death suspect mentally cleared to face trial

Posted Jun 26, 2015 on www.calgarysun.com

The trial for the 2012 death of Gatleak Thor Metkurjock will now proceed after the suspect has been declared as mentally fit to stand trial following a psychiatric assessment.

The suspect, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, is facing second-degree murder charges for allegedly bashing Thor Metkurjock in the head with a frying pan.

At that time, Thor Metkurjock and the suspect was attending a house party. The victim had passed out drunk and was being brought out. He had woken up and was belligerent so the suspect allegedly got a frying pan and hit him with it.

Calgary defence lawyer says client was wrongly accused

Sandoval-Barillas is on trial for allegedly sexually assaulting a then 16-year-old girl October of 2013 close to the Rundle LRT station. He has also been accused of threatening her with a weapon.

Milczarek told the jury that the victim is accusing his client whom she did see at the LRT Station minutes before the assault happened.

The lawyer further added that because the victim was intoxicated, she had wrongly assumed that it was his client who had assaulted her but that it wasn't him and someone else.

However, the crown prosecutor has contradicted Milczarek's defense of his client and said that Sandoval-Barillas' claim that he had left the station a few minutes after the victim did to get a cab and not to follow and assault her, was not believable.

A video taken by surveillance cameras had the two taking a train at the Whitehorn station.

The case has been submitted to the jury for deliberation.

Man imprisoned for dangerous driving

Posted Jun 26, 2015 on www.edmontonsun.com

Brandon James Hudson was meted with a prison term of two years and seven months after admitting to dangerous driving causing bodily harm.

Hudson also pleaded guilty to hit and run, stealing a vehicle, not stopping at the scene of an accident, breaches and assault.

Four people were injured as a result of Hudson's antics.

The Edmonton resident, however, does not remember any detail of what he had done to have been slapped with the several charges as he had been too high on drugs at the time of the incident.

Despite the non-recall, Hudson gave a nod to all the facts presented to him and even apologized for what he had done.

Hudson will have a year and a half to serve his sentence after he was credited for time spent in custody while awaiting trial.

Woman sentenced to prison for injecting silicone into other women's butts

Posted Mar 26, 2015 on www.vicnews.com

Marilyn Reid received an eight-year prison sentence for using silicone oil in performing butt lifts on her women clients without their knowledge.

Earlier in January, Reid had submitted a guilty plea to eight counts of aggravated assault.

According to the sentencing judge, Reid put the lives of her clients in danger without thought to their safety because she was only thinking of the profit that she would be getting.

Reid deceived her clients by promising them that she would be injecting PMMA, a substance that could only be acquired through the black market anyway because it is not approved for cosmetic surgery by Health Canada.

Four of Reid's five victims suffered serious injuries. Medical practitioners also had a hard time in treating them because they had no idea what was injected into their butts.

The Crown had asked for between 10 to 12-year sentence while Toronto lawyer Calvin Barry countered with 30 months.

Reid, however, will only be serving a little more than five years because the judge credited the time that she had spent in custody.

Judge to decide in April whether or not to admit statement made to undercover cop

Posted Mar 13, 2015 on www.timescolonist.com

Bradley Streiling will have to wait until April when the judge decides whether or not to admit as evidence against him a statement that he made to an undercover police.